Past performance may indeed be no guide to the future, as the warnings say, but two new studies show investors are relying on it even though it is demonstrably bad for their wealth. The question is, what can investors do instead?

Investors certainly favour the recent top-performers. A fund that has generated top-quartile performance in the previous year has a 91% chance of raising money this year, according to research quantifying how much past performance affects investors' decisions.